Page:Excellency of the knowledge of Christ crucified.pdf/6

( 6 ) i.e. to make nothing known among the people, but Jeſus Chriſt. This excellent, this matchleſs One, ſhould be the ſubject of all his ſermons, diſcourſes and epiſtles. He would ſtudy firſt to know Chriſt for himſelf, and then to make him known unto the people— ing an example to miniſters of the goſpel in all  ages, that they ſhould firſt be Chriſtians, and  —and further, that, however well they   accompliſhed in the ſeveral parts of human learning, yet in their pulpit-miniſtrations, they ſhould diſplay nothing but the glory, the love, and the laws of the Lord Jeſus Chriſt. This is the mean appointed of God for the ſalvation of ſinners; and, though it be eſteemed fooliſhneſs by the witlings of the world, we may reſt ſatisfied in this, that the only wiſe God knows very well how to adapt the means to the end.

2. ſpecial conſideration of Chriſt which he ſingles out from among all the reſt, to be the ſubject of his preaching, namely, Chriſt crucified. It is not Chriſt riſen, Chriſt aſcended, and ſitting at the right hand of God clothed with all power, that he pitches on, though theſe views of him were more likely to have recommended him to the world: but, behold! he ſingles out that very circumſtance concerning Chriſt, which, of all others, neither Jews nor Gentiles were able to endure: and that was, his being nailed to a croſs till he died! "Chriſt crucified was to the Jews a ſtumbling-block, and to the Greeks fooliſhneſs." And indeed he was ſo to Paul himſelf, as much as to any man, before his converſion; for he was, by his own acknowledgment, "a blaſphemer, a perſecutor, and injurious." Nay, we find, the diſciples could not bear the intimation of Chriſt's death when it was made to them by himſelf. Peter remonſtrates againſt it vigorouſly. The truth is, theſe good men laboured under the prejudices of a Jewiſh education; and they never awaked fully out of the dream of a temporal kingdom, until the day of Pentecoſt, that the Holy Ghoſt came down upon them, and cleared up the myſtery of the croſs unto them; and then, indeed, they went forth with boldneſs, boaſting and glorying in